The subject matter disclosed herein relates to power generation plants. More particularly, the subject matter relates to ventilating a turbine compartment of a power generation plant.
In power generation systems, a turbine compartment needs proper ventilation for several reasons. Examples of turbine compartment ventilation considerations include maintaining turbine clearances within reasonable ranges for better operational efficiency and keeping volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from accumulating inside of the turbine compartment. Ventilation capacity for a gas turbine compartment is determined based on several factors, including turbine casing surface heat dissipation rates, leakage from gas turbine casing flanges, local ambient conditions, ventilation arrangement (such as pressurized or non-pressurized turbine compartment) and safety considerations. These factors may make ventilation designs challenging for sites that experience extreme ambient air temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. In such cases, temperature control may be achieved by increased ventilation air flow. However, increased ventilation air flow can cause problems due to non-uniform cooling, increased parasitic electricity consumption by the ventilation fans, low sensitivity of VOC leakage detection, as well as increased leakage in compartment doors.